There was the time when road works meant Girlahead had to hand-carry her wheelie the last 100 metres, over uneven ground, to BEIJING LUFTHANSA CENTER BEIJING. There was the arrival at a hotel on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in a half-length Proton ‘limousine’. There was being driven to the front door of CIRAGAN PALACE KEMPINSKI ISTANBUL, above, in a 1974 Rolls-Royce, with champion hotel boss Ralph Radtke.
There have been numerous appalling arrivals, like turning up at exactly the same time as four coachloads of just-disembarked cruise passengers, at a hotel in Miami I dare not mention. There was a big-brand hotel in Addis Ababa that was falling diwn befire it was even finished. CAPELLA SINGAPORE has a magnificent arrival, up a gently rising curved avenue to the main ddoor of the original, red-tiled white house. At JUMEIRAH EMIRATES TOWERS and RITZ-CARLTON HONG KONG – and THE OBEROI GURGAON – the car swirls up a whole floor-height to the front door.
Operators pay a lot of attention to the ‘arrival process’ once a newcomer reaches, to come in through, the front door. Do developers and designers give enough thought to what happens beforehand, outside? Just a thought.
